Bush pleads for more NATO troops for Afghanistan

[maddezmom]

RIGA (Reuters) - President Bush appealed to NATO allies on Tuesday to provide more troops with fewer national restrictions for the alliance's most dangerous mission in Afghanistan, hours before a summit of allied leaders.

"To succeed in Afghanistan, NATO allies must provide the forces NATO military commanders require," Bush told a joint news conference with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves in Tallinn on his way to the NATO meeting in neighboring Latvia.

"Like Estonia, member nations must accept difficult assignments if we expect to be successful," he said in a veiled reference to numerous so-called national caveats that restrict where, when and how allies' troops can be used.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a security conference in Riga it was unacceptable that allied forces in southern Afghanistan, the main battleground with resurgent Taliban fighters, were 20 percent below the required strength.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061128/ts_nm/nato_summit_dc_3

[Lochloosa]

1. Get them from Iraq....

Idiot!

[acmavm]

2. bush** is really groveling now, trying to get anybody to help

pull his ass out of the fire. Those flames must be getting really uncomfortable.

Do you think anyone ever reminds him that if he hadn't gone into Iraq he might not still be dealing with Afganistan?

[Joe Bacon]

3. Clap Harder, President Peter Pan, CLAP HARDER!

And snort a little more of your fairy dust so TInkerbelle can wave her magic wand!

[Captain Hilts]

4. Isn't that where our troops are supposed to be? nt

[Supersedeas]

5. the Chimperor abandoned Afghanistan--now wants someone else to pick up slack